Progress report, Monday March 10th 2008

Arrrgh.... Got an update from iA late in the evening. Things are going well with the swap but Stephen ran into a few snags with swapping some of the plumbing around that caused him a delay since he had to order some parts that weren't available here in the US and subsequently had to be flown in from Germany. This being the first swap they've done I'm sure all the 'lessons learned' will mean any future conversions they do will go a bit quicker since they'll know the routine and also all the bits that need to be ordered up front.

I'm still waiting on the more technical blow by blow that I'll get once he's done and has time to do his own write up but here's a few bits I've picked up on so far: Apparently, as expected, to get the taller X51 to fit in the CS's tiny engine bay without banging into the aluminum cover (The intake is WAY taller) the rear motor mount is reportedly from a 965 and the front uses 1inch spacers to lower the motor just enough. Also it seems some various plumbing pieces from a 996 are needed to get things to connect back up properly in the oil system.

As it stands we've busted the one week goal but some of that was waiting on (unexpectedly needed) parts to come in and even so it looks like it will take at most 2 weeks to do this swap. (and future ones could be expected to go quicker without the ankle biters...) Stephen finally got in touch with Scott Slausen who has done several of these so hopefully all the pit falls have been identified and it'll be smooth sailing buttoning it back up... Considering the nature of what we're doing here 2 weeks is still not bad! Can't wait to drive it!